An unnervingly timely tale of prejudice, hatred, and violence.
A wave of antisemitic cruelty in 1943 Boston entangles two well-meaning souls who can’t avoid the passions it generates and implants even within themselves.
Anne Lemire writes the Rumor Clinic, a column debunking vicious innuendos, for the Boston Star. Devon Mulvey is a philandering FBI agent with an eye for married women. Despite the war effort, which seems to have united most Americans except for Devon’s father, unregenerate isolationist John Mulvey, nothing would seem likely to bring the two together. That all changes when Anne’s teenage brother, Sammy, is beaten up by an Irish gang targeting the city’s Jews, and the national security concerns surrounding the fatal stabbing of Abraham Wolff, an employee of Northeast Munitions, bring Devon onto the case along with the Boston Police Department. To his surprise, Devon finds himself at odds with the whole BPD, including his cousin, Officer Brian Dennigan. At the same time, Anne’s investigations of antisemitism force her to confront traumatic ruptures within her own family. Once they meet each other, the pair make common cause by going after the Christian Legion, which, under the politically ambitious attorney Charles Nolan, has printed up Nazi leaflets and counterfeit ration stamps, selling the latter to local Jewish families they plan to expose as cheaters and traitors. Devon and Anne also end up in a predictable romance. But their relationship is brutally torpedoed by pressures on both their jobs, family members whose complicity on different sides they can’t overlook, and scathing accusations against each other that bring the conflicts the Christian Legion has stoked mercilessly to a boil. Looks like the country is a bit less united than it seemed.
An unnervingly timely tale of prejudice, hatred, and violence.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9781250842770
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
A weird, wild ride.
Celebrity scandal and a haunted lake drive the narrative in this bestselling author’s latest serving of subtly ironic suspense.
Sager’s debut, Final Girls (2017), was fun and beautifully crafted. His most recent novels—Home Before Dark (2020) and Survive the Night (2021) —have been fun and a bit rickety. His new novel fits that mold. Narrator Casey Fletcher grew up watching her mother dazzle audiences, and then she became an actor herself. While she never achieves the “America’s sweetheart” status her mother enjoyed, Casey makes a career out of bit parts in movies and on TV and meatier parts onstage. Then the death of her husband sends her into an alcoholic spiral that ends with her getting fired from a Broadway play. When paparazzi document her substance abuse, her mother exiles her to the family retreat in Vermont. Casey has a dry, droll perspective that persists until circumstances overwhelm her, and if you’re getting a Carrie Fisher vibe from Casey Fletcher, that is almost certainly not an accident. Once in Vermont, she passes the time drinking bourbon and watching the former supermodel and the tech mogul who live across the lake through a pair of binoculars. Casey befriends Katherine Royce after rescuing her when she almost drowns and soon concludes that all is not well in Katherine and Tom’s marriage. Then Katherine disappears….It would be unfair to say too much about what happens next, but creepy coincidences start piling up, and eventually, Casey has to face the possibility that maybe some of the eerie legends about Lake Greene might have some truth to them. Sager certainly delivers a lot of twists, and he ventures into what is, for him, new territory. Are there some things that don’t quite add up at the end? Maybe, but asking that question does nothing but spoil a highly entertaining read.
A weird, wild ride.Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-18319-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
A touching story of love and grief ends in an epic battle of good versus evil.
Roberts’ latest may move you to tears, or joy, or dread, or all three.
Every summer, John and Cora Fox visit Cora’s mother, Lucy Lannigan, in Redbud Hollow, Kentucky, leaving their children, 12-year-old Thea and 10-year-old Rem, for a two-week taste of heaven. The children love Grammie Lucy far more than John’s snooty family, which looks down on Cora. Lucy, a healer with deep Appalachian roots, loves animals, cooks the best meals, plays musical instruments, and makes soap and candles for her thriving business. Thea—who’s inherited the psychic abilities passed down through the women of Lucy’s family—has vivid magical dreams, one of which becomes a living nightmare when a psychopath robs and murders John and Cora as Thea watches helplessly. Thea’s description of the killer and her ability to see him in real time help the skeptical police catch Ray Riggs, who goes to prison for life. Although Thea and Rem go on to have a wonderful childhood with Grammie, Thea constantly wages a mental battle with Riggs, who tries to use his own psychic abilities to get into her mind. Over the years, Thea uses her imagination to become a game designer while the more business-minded Rem helps manage her career. Thea eventually builds a house near Lucy, where a newly arrived neighbor is her teen crush, singer-songwriter Tyler Brennan. Tyler has his own issues and is protective of his young son but slowly builds a loving relationship with Thea, whose silence about her abilities leads to a devastating misunderstanding. At first Thea tries to keep Riggs locked out of her mind. As her powers grow, she torments him. Finally, she realizes that she must win this battle and destroy him if she’s ever to have peace.
A touching story of love and grief ends in an epic battle of good versus evil.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781250289698
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
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